runningcoachsg: February 2014

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Zoo Run 2014 - 12km in 48min 08sec

Note:

If you are keen and have queries, please contact Coach Rameshon at 9100 4369 or you can email him at m.rameshon@gmail.com or swift.rameshon@gmail.com. Please refer to website http://flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)

By Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

About 8,000 runners took part in Safari Zoo Run 2014 today. The race consisted of run through the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari route. One loop was about 6km.

The event was started six years ago in memory of the zoo's orangutan Ah Meng. Ah Meng died of old age in February 2008. Wildlife Reserves Singapore said a portion of the proceeds from this year's race will go towards the care of endangered animals in Night Safari and Singapore Zoo.

For the sake of fundraising and to enjoy the competition of the race, 45 of Flexifitness athletes took part in the race, which has 2.8km for children, 6km competitive run and 12km run for older children and adults.

I was there at the Zoo at 6 45am. It was crowded but it was orderly. Immediately, I was able to get a car park lot.

I was focused on running my race. My target to run today is to do a steady state run and not really bother about time. Between last Wednesday to Saturday, I did not do any form of running training. I was feeling tired throughout the week.

Hence, I decided to do a sub - 50min for the 12km Men Open race. There was no Men Veteran section.

We were allowed to go in at 7 15am to the start line. There was no pushing to go in front of the starting point. At 7 30am, the race started. I realised that the race kicked off with some dashing and speeding up by runners who were in the front during the early portion of the race.

Throughout the run, I was composed not to push too hard and go easier. At 4km mark, I did 15min 10sec. At 5km mark, my time stood at 19min 10sec. My friend Christian Stauffer cheered me on during the race.

I mistook the race for 10km instead of 12km as I was pacing myself during the race. Only when I ran half-way did I know that I have just completed 6km and there was another 6km loop to go. At the 6.5km mark, I was dog tired.

The route was full of gradual upslopes and downslopes. Later on, at most part of the race, I was simply enjoying the route. It was lovely to run and it was nice to see the animals while I was running. At certain parts, I did not have time to see the animals. The animals I saw, if I am not wrong, were hyenas, giraffes and elephants.

As soon as I reached the 8km mark, the time stood at 32min 05sec. I was very happy to see this time.

At 9km mark, I realised that I might do a sub - 48min for the 12km route. Most parts of the route, I had to zig-zag myself throughout the route as the 6km runners were still running along the route.

Towards the last 1km, I sped and did a 48min 08sec for the 12km race. I was happy to see this time. This is an unofficial timing and I am waiting for the official timing which will be out in the net soon.

I was also happy to see that 4 of our athletes did a sub-50min for the 12km race. Two of them did 46min plus while another did 49min plus.

Last year's fastest girl in our group did 1hr 08min for the 12km. This year our fastest girl did 47min plus at the 10km mark and 55min at the 12km mark.

Note:

By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).

He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Long Runs on Sunday (Part 2) - Should be scenic as possible.

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Long Runs - It is an important part of a runner.

Picture 1 - A scene at Upper Pierce

Sunday runs are important for long-distance runners. It can range from 10km to 20km. For elite runners, it can range between 20 to 35km. Paul Tergat, 5 times World Cross-Country Championships winner did 38km in his prime days for one longest run of the week.

Careful guidance is needed to increase the long run to improve in running. An important thing to do is to use one's common sense to gradually increase the run's distance progressively.

It is stated in the Runners' World that we should do the longest run on a Sunday as a workout itself. It means that it is not a speed workout but a stamina workout, instead. One should, at all cost, avoid all forms of training of other components of fitness, like strength training, agility training etc as it can be very tiring and it can affect one's training in the future.

However, one could do a long bout of stretching after a run, especially after the run to recover fast. One must have the discipline to do this.

During the longest run on the weekend, Saturday or Sunday, it is good to go slower than moderate pace. One should enjoy the run. One way to test that you are enjoying is to check whether you are able to talk to your friend or not.

If you are not able to do that, it is good to slow down a bit. Experience in running showed me that compared to a flat course and hilly course, it is wise to choose a flat course instead.

One should be able to draft out a plan so that there is not much of repetition in running the same place unless you have to do the repeated terrain with no choice. The terrain should be easy to run on.

One such route that I used to take is to run from the zig-zag bridge to the northern route. From there, we go to the upper pierce, Gate 1 and Gate 2, routes made of gradual rolling hills, with the scenic course and we run back to the northern route and return to the zig-zag bridge. There was water point along the route, as there is a toilet at Upper Pierce.

It takes about an hour and a half to two hours to run this route. I usually find myself running a bit faster as I could go into a zone of focus as the route is very scenic.

Nowadays, this area is out of bounds for the runners at MacRitchie Reservoir. However, we are allowed to run around the 10.55km run around the reservoir.

Some routes are made of Broadwalk, made of wood, and it is flat, usually. The route can cover about 5.6km at the Northern Route side and 2km at the Boys Route area.

One could run to Kheam Hock Road from MacRitchie, and it is linked to CCAB MOE Evans Road. From there we could run to Nasim Road, as an extension, to increase mileage.

My only suggestion to runners is to avoid running too much on the terrain that links one from MacRitchie to Rifle Range road. My experience shows that one should limit their runs if one wants to run long term. In running here too much, one could get knee pain and, in the long run, knee injury.

It is important to run you long runs less hilly as possible. This is my advice for runners to enjoy running. Happy running!

Note:

By Narayanan

Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).

He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Long Runs on Sunday - A reason for former local marathoners to do well

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Past and present timing - In the past, the timings were faster.

1994 Singapore International Marathon - An example of timings of the past.

Men's Local Open Position
1. 2hr 34min 02sec Murugiah Rameshon
(PB is 2hr 24min 22sec, 1995), SEA Games)
2. 2hr 44min 46sec Khoo Chin Poo
3. 2hr 46min 10sec Tan Choon Ghee

In the past, the timings of the marathon were much faster. Usually, in the Singapore Marathon races, at least 6 of them will do a sub- 2hr 45min. I remember N. Ganesan, 5000m former National Record holder, doing 2hr 46min, coming in 6th in the marathon, in the year 1992. He wrote a letter to me on his race and it was his first marathon race.

Nowadays, I see that the marathon times, especially the overall average timings, for locals to be much slower. Recently, my friend, Tulsidas from Red Hawk Athletics Club, a former competitor to me, met me at a temple. He told me that we used to run much faster a few years back.

I also agreed with him. The only thing we were not able to understand is that why are the times slower.

We know that the first two runner’s times, especially Mok Ying Ren's and Ashley Liew's times, are comparable to the past. However, from 3rd position to 10th position for local men runners, the timings should be much faster now.

The reason for the current runners to obtain a much faster time stems from the fact that in the present world can see that the technology nowadays is more advanced than the past such that we can expedite our performance in running and other sports as well.

In the past, we did not have tights which allows improvement in performance and recovery from a workout and long run bouts. We did not have altometer. We did not have proper running shoes as what we have now.

There are gait analysis and correction in gait to run faster and so on currently. There is GPS watch as well to measure the accuracy of the distance so that one can calculate their mileage and pace oneself well too.

However, somehow, I feel that a reason for us to do well in the past comes from running our very long runs. I believe we were able to achieve this at Macritchie Reservoir in the past.

We used to do a very long run, about 20km every week, running from the northern route to upper Pierce to Gate 1 and Gate 2 and back to MacRitchie.

Right now, this Gate 1 and Gate 2 is now closed to the public. We do not have access to run as there is a fence to ward off runners running there.

I see runners running about 10 to 15km at MacRitchie Reservoir nowadays.

Now, it is difficult to run at MacRitchie as we have to run repeatedly the same route. This makes us run shorter for our long runs.

It is just that we cannot do anything about this position. Some runners are running at East Coast. This is flat and long route but the whole route is made of tarmac and pavement and it may not be good to do long runs there as some of the runners and I had plantar fasciitis injury there.

I believe that a runner should do something about this to expedite performance improvement, especially the Sunday runs.